Welcome to the Seeing Hands Project.

Seeing Hands Nepal is a UK Registered Charity, set up to provide training and employment opportunities in massage therapy for young blind people in Nepal.

In our training centre, blind and partially-sighted students are learning Remedial Massage skills taught by Rob Ainley (DO LCSP HPC), and a team of experienced volunteer massage therapists. Their course is comprehensive, requiring a thorough understanding of Anatomy and Physiology and a minimum of 100 hours of clinical practice.

Students practice their skills on 'volunteer clients' in our adjoining Treatment Clinic, where they work when they become certified Seeing Hands masseurs. Part of their earnings help to fund the training of more young and disadvantaged blind people.

It is our eventual aim for the Seeing Hands project to evolve into a totally self-sustaining social enterprise, run by the blind, for the blind.

Reasons Why

• In Nepal, at least 600,000 people are either partially or totally blind. They face a desperate future, entirely dependent on others with limited or no opportunities for education or work.



• Society marginalizes and neglects them because of traditional beliefs that blindness is a curse or penance for sins in a previous life. Some people even think blindness is contagious.



• In other countries in Asia, blind people have worked as masseurs for centuries, but the profession has never been established in Nepal.



• Blind people are particularly suited to becoming masseurs because they often have heightened senses of touch and perception.



• There is a strong demand for professional massage services in tourist areas, where many popular Himalayan trekking routes start and finish.

The Seeing Hands team is working to create a unique opportunity for the blind in Nepal - one that capitalizes upon their inherent skills and offers them real prospects for work at the end of their training.

Please help us to achieve our aims.

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